San Francisco Opera’s free ‘In Song’ video portrait series

San Francisco Opera's In Song video portrait series continues with its eighth episode, In Song: Daniela Mack. Other episodes featuring sopranos Amina Edris, Meigui Zhang and Pretty Yende; mezzo-sopranos Jamie Barton (with banjo virtuoso Béla Fleck), J'Nai Bridges and Daniela Mack; and tenors Arturo Chacón-Cruz and Pene Pati are available for free at sfopera.com/insong and on the opera company's YouTube Channel.

The Daniela Mack episode was filmed on location in Buenos Aires and can be seen on You Tube (English), You Tube (Spanish), Facebook and Instagram.

Mack left Buenos Aires when she was six, so returning and singing Piazzolla's music was a moving journey of discovery and reconnection. The In Song episode was filmed just prior to the start of rehearsals for El último sueño de Frida y Diego (The Last Dream of Frida and Diego) in San Francisco. The New Yorker called her performance as Mexican artist Frida Kahlo “lustrous and keenly expressive”.

Mack traces her childhood memories, reunites with her family, and shares music by tango master Astor Piazzolla and 19th-century composer Pauline Viardot. For Piazzolla's “Yo Soy María” (I Am Maria) and “Los Pájaros Perdidos” (The Lost Birds) she sings with bandleader and arranger JP Jofre on bandoneon, Pablo Estigarribia on piano and Lucía Luque on violin, at Club Thelonious in the Palermo district. Viardot's “Havanaise” was filmed at Palacio Sans Souci in the northern part of Buenos Aires where she performs with Teatro Colón pianist Iván Rutkauskas.

San Francisco Opera's In Song is a series of intimate video portraits featuring remarkable artists who draw us into their distinctive spheres through stories and song—from classical to bluegrass, spirituals to mariachi and spanning Zulu, Samoan and Egyptian music. The series was launched in March 2021 with the intention of allowing viewers to see how the featured singers express themselves through deep connections to song.

IN CONVERSATION WITH DANIELA MACK

Go behind the scenes and learn more at In Conversation with Daniela Mack where Mack joins In Song director and executive producer Elena Park to discuss the episode's creation and share more about her musical and personal journey, and is joined by her husband, tenor Alek Shrader. In Conversation with Daniela Mack is also available at sfopera.com/insong.

Gramilano( Editor )

Graham Spicer is a writer, director and photographer in Milan, blogging (under the name ‘Gramilano') about dance, opera, music and photography for people “who are a bit like me and like some of the things I like”. He was a regular columnist for Opera Now magazine and wrote for the BBC until transferring to Italy.

His scribblings have appeared in various publications from Woman's Weekly to Gay Times, and he wrote the ‘Danza in Italia' column for Dancing Times magazine.